Turkey tries to mend fences with Kurds despite deadly attack

ISTANBUL — Ankara is leaning towards a rapprochement with the Kurds despite last week's deadly attack on a Turkish defence firm that was claimed by PKK militants. 

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) claimed responsibility for Wednesday's attack on the headquarters of the state-owned TAI company that killed five and injured 22.

It came less than a day after a Turkish nationalist hardliner and government ally had extended a shock olive branch to the jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.

Devlet Bahceli, who heads Turkey's ultra-nationalist MHP Party, floated letting Ocalan address parliament to renounce terror and dissolve the PKK. 

Ocalan has been languishing in solitary confinement on a Turkish prison island since 1999.

The PKK was careful to clarify that the bomb attack had "nothing to do with" Ankara's tentative change of tack.

In a message on its Telegram channel, it said the attack had been "planned a long time ago" to send "a warning to the Turkish state about its genocidal practices".

The Turkish military responded in time-honoured fashion by striking Kurdish targets in northern Syria and Iraq.

For Hamit Bozarslan, a Paris-based specialist on the Kurdish question, Turkey's shift in position is linked to the escalating conflicts in the Middle East. 

"Part of the government would like to open a dialogue with the Kurdish movement, especially if the regional situation deteriorates and weakens Iran which would have a definite impact on Iraq and Syria," he told AFP.

Both countries border Turkey and are home to large and powerful Kurdish minorities. 

The PKK, which has waged an on-off insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 that has killed thousands, has long been designated as a terror group by Turkey and its Western allies. 

Yet on Saturday, three days after the attack, Bahceli, who is close to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and fiercely hostile to the PKK, was still talking peace, saying: "Turks and Kurds must love each other, this is both a religious and a political obligation for both sides." 

Ocalan's visit 

In another sign that something is afoot, Ocalan received his first family visit since 2020 just hours before the attack. 

His nephew, Omer Ocalan, a lawmaker for the main pro-Kurdish DEM Party, confirmed the visit on X, saying the family had last seen him "on March 3, 2020".

Turkish politicians, among them Turkey's Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek, were quick to point out that the timing of Wednesday's attack was not "a coincidence". 

The attack also raises questions about Ocalan's power within the movement after more than 25 years behind bars. 

For Bozarslan, "Ocalan remains the key player" who is capable of "exercising his influence" over any ongoing political process. 

But for Yektan Turkyilmaz, an Austria-based academic, after years without any "organic contact" with the PKK leadership, it will be "a big challenge for Ocalan to impose a government-endorsed plan" on the diverse Kurdish movement.

"Ocalan is not only in the most difficult position in his entire career, but he's also taking a big, big risk because he has never managed to convince his own supporters of accepting a peaceful political solution" to the conflict, he told AFP. 

"And the same could be said about the government," he added.

Regional tensions key 

Turkish public opinion is not overly enthused about a deal with the PKK. 

Observers say the government's move to reach out to the Kurds is directly linked to its fears of conflict spreading because of Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza and its assault on Lebanon. 

Turkyilmaz said Ankara's overtures to the Kurds were a bid to "reinforce" the domestic front in order to face up to the regional challenge posed by Israel. 

But above all, it was looking for an "opportunity" to ease pressure along its border with Syria, an ally of Iran, he said. 

After Israeli warplanes struck Iran early on Saturday, Turkey called for an end to what it said was Israel's "terror" which had brought the region to "the brink of a greater war".